Officials pushing ethics reform

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
7:00 pm EST, Monday, January 10, 2005

But they could be headed for a showdown about the details.

Rell and the Senate Democrats both released their legislative proposals for ethics reform Monday. Both include contracting reforms, revoking the pension of a public official convicted of corruption, requiring municipalities to adopt ethics codes and campaign finance reform.

They disagree on whether taxpayers should fund political campaigns.

Several of Rell's proposals were in direct response to misdeeds by her predecessor, former Gov. John G. Rowland, who resigned last July to avoid impeachment and pleaded guilty to a corruption charge last month. Under her proposal, no state official could accept a gift of more than $100 from anyone if the gift is because of official's position; and a public official could not accept voluntary service, except for campaign work, from anyone.

Rell's proposed campaign finance reforms would ban all campaign contributions from lobbyists and state contractors, lower contributions from individuals, candidates and political action committees and put spending caps on campaigns for state office.

"It's time people stopped working the system and we made sure the system works for people," Rell said in a statement Monday. "It's time to rein in the special interests and big money that have commandeered our elections. It's time to plug the gaps in our ethics laws. It's time to make certain that everyone who does business on behalf of the state does it fairly."

The governor's proposal would come in the form of six different bills. One bill would deal with the package of campaign finance proposals, one on establishing a new ethics commission, three on contracting reform and one on general ethics issues.

Instead of direct public funding, Rell has proposed a $100 tax deduction to those who make a donation to political candidates.

"This will first drive down the cost of campaigns and encourage participation," Rell spokesman Dennis Schain said "The governor believes at a time when we are facing a $1 billion-plus deficit, taxpayers don't have the appetite for public financing."

Senate Democrats would establish a taxpayer-financed system for campaigns, where a candidate would be required to raise a certain amount in private donations to qualify for matching funds. The funds would come from a voluntary check-off box on state income tax forms.

While Democrats said they are willing to work with the governor, their response was hardly a strong show of bipartisanship.

"Public financing is the cornerstone of campaign finance reform," said Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn. "Everything else is just tinkering with the edges of the current system. It is window dressing and avoids the real issue."

Williams said reform was urgent, but said that under the Democratic bill, changes would not take effect before the 2010 governor's race, and wouldn't affect legislative races yet.

"The governor's race, for better or worse, is already under way with existing laws," Williams said. "We want to let everyone start off on equal footing. At a minimum we will start with the governor's office. Ideally we would fund campaigns across the board, but we have to find the money."

Democratic lawmakers said it is too early to say how much public financing would cost. A 2000 bill, vetoed by Rowland, required a candidate for governor to raise $200,000 in individual donations of less than $100 to qualify for $2 million in state funding raised by a voluntary check-off box on the state income tax form.

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, the state's chief election officer and Democratic candidate for governor in 2006 and has raised more than $1 million for her campaign, said she would not mind if any of the proposals took effect before the 2006 election.

She said public financing is necessary for real reform.

"The scandals of the Rowland-Rell administration show us we need comprehensive campaign finance reform," Bysiewicz said. "If we passed comprehensive campaign finance reform, under the voluntary check-off box, many of Governor Rell's proposals wouldn't be necessary."

Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca, R-Woodbury, said the Democratic package was "more a quest for headlines than a quest to make it happen."

"Look at the budget. My tax dollars shouldn't support someone I do not support," DeLuca said.

Sen. Andrew Roraback, a Goshen Republican whose district includes Brookfield and New Milford, said the Democratic proposal that has no immediate affect on the legislature seems "hypocritical."

He said Rell's proposals to lower contributions from political action committees, similar to legislation he introduced in previous years, are long overdue.

"I have introduced this bill for the past four years," Roraback said. "Our inability to enact these reforms before reflects poorly on us."

Rell wants the reforms to go into effect immediately, and wants to sign the bill by early next month. Democrats said it would likely take longer because the bills would have to go through four or more legislative committees.